2. VISION, OBJECTIVES & DEVELOPMENT PRINCIPLES

Policy NW1: Vision

North West Cambridge will create a new University quarter, which will contribute
to meeting the needs of the wider city community, and which will embody best
practice in environmental sustainability. Development will be of the highest
quality and support the further development of the University, Cambridge and
the Sub-Region as a centre of excellence and a world leader within the fields
of higher education and research, and will address the University’s long-term
development needs to 2021 and beyond. There will be a new local centre which
will act as a focus for the development and which will also provide facilities
and services for nearby communities. A revised Green Belt and a new landscaped
urban edge will preserve the unique character of Cambridge, enhance its setting
and maintain the separate identity of Girton village.

2.1 Cambridge University has identified this area, which is in its ownership,
as its only option to address its long-term development needs for a number of
uses, including housing. The Structure Plan 2003 accepted that the Area Action
Plan location should be released from the Green Belt for development following
a review of the boundary, and that once released it should be reserved for predominantly
University-related uses and only brought forward for development when the University
could show a clear need for the land to be developed. The evidence base produced
for the examination of the soundness of this Area Action Plan, and specifically
the evidence produced by the University, identifies a clear need for the land
to be brought forward for development, with a current need for University key
worker affordable housing.

2.2 The University’s development needs arise from its requirement to:

Continue to fulfil its mission to contribute to society
through the pursuit of education, learning and research at the highest
international levels of excellence;

Respond positively to Government policy for growth in
the higher education sector; and

Work actively to support the expansion of the
knowledge-based economy.

To achieve its objectives the University will remain a collegiate organisation,
primarily residentially based. To this end it seeks additional student housing
to reflect the rising student population and to reduce the proportion of postgraduate
students relying on the commercial housing sector. Given the longstanding difficulties
in the local housing market the University needs to achieve a fourfold increase
in its provision of housing available to staff. This need is to deal with recruitment
and retention problems arising from local house prices and rental levels.

2.3 The University’s development needs relate not only to academic buildings.
The University’s research activities are increasingly carried out collaboratively
with public and charitable sector research institutes, and industry. It needs
to be able to provide a range of opportunities for such collaborations from
small embedded units within academic departments to sites for major research
facilities proximate to related University activities. Above all, the University
needs to be able to respond rapidly to opportunities arising from breakthroughs
in research, technological advances and new funding sources.

2.4 The University’s stated aspirations during the early stages of the plan
making process for development at North West Cambridge for the period up to
2025 include:

Accommodation
for 2,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students which might include
accommodation at new colleges or extensions to existing ones;

2,000 to 2,500
dwellings, a "significant proportion” of which should be affordable housing for
University staff;

Academic facilities;

Sui-generis research institutes;

Commercial research and development space;

Hotel and conference facilities;

Community facilities such as a primary school and shops;

Public open recreational space; and

Nature conservation areas.

2.5 The Area Action Plan vision will guide the development of the planning
policy framework and help create a high quality development that seeks to help
meet the aspirations of the University.

Objectives of the Area Action Plan:

To contribute to meeting the long-term development needs of Cambridge
University;

To create a sustainable community;

To make the best use of energy and other natural resources, to be
built as an exemplar of sustainable living with low carbon and greenhouse
gas emissions and be able to accommodate the impacts of climate change;

To create a satisfactory mix of uses, taking into account:

Identified University development needs

The need for affordable housing for University and College staff;

To secure a wide range of housing types and tenures;

To secure high quality development of both built form and open spaces;

To create a community which respects and links with adjoining communities;

To achieve a modal split of no more than 40% of trips to work by
car (excluding car passengers) and to maximise walking, cycling and public
transport use;

To maintain the purposes of the Green Belt;

To provide an appropriate landscape setting and high quality edge
treatment for Cambridge;

To provide appropriate separation between Cambridge and the village
of Girton to maintain village character and identity;

To provide standards for infrastructure provision including renewable
energy, open space, car and cycle parking, sewerage and surface water drainage;

To provide an appropriate level of community services and facilities
to serve the development satisfactorily;

To determine appropriate phasing of development taking into account
that development should only proceed when the University can prove the need
for it;

To secure the infrastructure needs of the development, including
green infrastructure; and

To protect special geological interest, existing wildlife and wildlife
corridors and secure a net increase in biodiversity.

2.6 These objectives relate to the Area Action Plan and Masterplanning and
to the preparation and determination of planning applications. They are derived
from national and regional planning guidance, the Structure Plan, local circumstances
and from the evidence base.

Policy NW2: Development Principles

North West Cambridge will be planned and
developed:

As an attractive and distinctive mixed-use development well integrated with the
City and connected to surrounding communities and the countryside;

To a high level of design quality for all parts of the community to create
accessible developments and neighbourhoods with their own character and
legibility;

As a balanced, viable and socially inclusive community where people can live in a
healthy and safe environment;

To a flexible design which will be energy efficient, and built to be an exemplar
of sustainable living with low carbon and greenhouse gas emissions and able to
accommodate the impacts of climate change;

To avoid the necessity for noise and air quality mitigation measures that would
detract from the landscape setting of Cambridge.

Development proposals should,
as appropriate to their nature, location, scale and economic viability:

Protect and enhance the geodiversity and
biodiversity of the site and incorporate historic landscape and geological
features;

Provide a high quality landscape framework for
the development and its immediate setting;

Provide
safe and convenient access for all to public buildings and spaces, and to
public transport, including those with limited mobility or those with other
impairment such as of sight or hearing;

Have
a design and layout that minimises opportunities for crime;

Provide
integrated refuse and recycling facilities and reduce the amount of waste
produced, through good design.

Planning permission will not
be granted where the proposed development or associated mitigation measures
would have an unacceptable adverse impact:

Planning permission will not
be granted where a development would be exposed to levels of noise, vibration,
air pollution, lighting and other forms of pollution that are unacceptable in
relation to the nature of that development.

2.7 There are a number of overarching development principles that will guide
the development of North West Cambridge to ensure that it is a sustainable and
vibrant new community that takes account of its context. These principles are
consistent with the policy context for North West Cambridge provided by the
Cambridge Local Plan, the South Cambridgeshire Core Strategy DPD, the Structure
Plan and national planning policy. The principles primarily relate to protecting
and enhancing amenity and health, to ensuring a sustainable development and
to preventing unacceptable adverse impacts on matters of acknowledged importance.

2.8 This policy provides headline guidance for developers to help ensure that
these principles are properly considered and addressed. All new development
will have an impact on its surroundings and be affected by them. The aim must
be that the development of this major urban extension to Cambridge responds
to its surroundings, including existing buildings, open spaces and existing
urban and village edges, to ensure an integrated scheme that does not harm local
amenity and, wherever possible, brings benefits to the area. The development
principles set out in Policy NW2 complement the individual subject based policies
of the Plan and should be read alongside them.

2.9 A number of Studies and Strategies need to be in place before planning
permission can be granted, to ensure that the policy requirements of the Plan
are met and a high quality, sustainable development is achieved. The purpose
of these is addressed in the relevant topic chapters. In addition, a Biodiversity
Strategy will address the protection and enhancement of biodiversity interests
on the site, and a Landscape Strategy will address the landscape treatment within
and on the edge of the development, including its immediate setting. A Lighting
Strategy will also be required to consider the effects on residential and wider
amenity and will address lighting of key buildings, routes across the strategic
gap and the lighting treatment of the urban edge. The Lighting Strategy should
also consider the impact of outdoor lighting from the development on the operation
of the Institute of Astronomy Observatory at Madingley Road, with a view to
minimising any negative impacts.

2.10 Consideration will need to be given as to how to protect the special geological
importance of the Traveller’s Rest Pit SSSI which provides a unique exposure
of fossiliferous cold stage gravels, sands and silts of a high-level terrace
(Observatory Gravels) of the River Cam. Recent studies confirm that the special
geological interest is located on the southern part of the existing SSSI and
on land to its south and west, while the northern part of the existing SSSI
no longer has any special geological importance. Natural England has carried
out a review of the scientific information from surveys by Boreham (2008a, b
& c) and Green (2008). In the light of this it appears that additional land
is eligible for notification. The Local Team therefore intends to develop a
case for reviewing the SSSI boundary (including additional land to the south
and west and removing land to the north), although no definite timescale for
this has been agreed at present. Development proposals will need to take into
account advice from Natural England that a 10m buffer around the SSSI will be
required during the masterplanning and planning applications stages to ensure
that the scientific value of the site is not compromised by the development
of North West Cambridge.

2.11 It is important that the design of the development fully takes into account
the impact of noise and air pollution arising from the M11 and A14, in relation
to the amenity and health of residents, workers and school children, the amenity
and use of open spaces and impact upon the setting of Cambridge. Specific studies
should be undertaken to address these concerns. Masterplanning and the detailed
planning application process will need to determine the appropriate disposition
of uses, location and design of buildings, and mitigation measures. The use
of certain types of physical acoustic barrier such as a fence alongside the
M11 is unlikely to be acceptable in this sensitive location.

2.12 All planning applications for major development are required to submit
a Sustainability Appraisal and a Health Impact Statement to demonstrate that
they have addressed sustainability issues, including impact on health, in their
development proposals. Major development is defined as:

Residential development: the erection of 10 or more dwellings, or, if this is not known,
where the site area is 0.5 hectares or more; or

Other development: where the floor area to be created is 1,000 m2
or more, or the site area is 1 hectare or more.

2.13 For all development, an urban design-led approach will ensure that every
proposal, whatever its scale, responds positively to the particular characteristics
of a site and its surroundings and reinforces local distinctiveness.

Policy NW3: Implementing the Area Action Plan

A Masterplan is required to achieve the key development principles for North West
Cambridge and must be submitted as part of an outline planning application;

The outline planning application will include parameter plans along with a design
and access statement in support of the application;

Design Codes must be prepared for approval by
the local planning authorities to support the delivery of all phases of
development and will be approved in advance of any reserved matters
application;

Any reserved matters application will include a design statement to demonstrate
compliance with previously approved parameter plans and design codes.

2.14 Before
any planning permission for North West Cambridge can be granted it will be
necessary to ensure that the development will be delivered in accordance with
the principles set out in the Area Action Plan. A Masterplan for the whole site will be prepared as part of the
supporting information to the application for the grant of planning permission
to ensure this is the case and to create the framework within which a high
quality accessible development can be achieved. The Masterplan should be submitted with the outline planning
application for the first phase of development. This would provide certainty that the development of later stages
is compatible with that of earlier stages.
Design codes, and possibly other types of design guidance, will help
deliver the Masterplan.